Spell Mantle, Least
Description You create a barrier around yourself that absorbs all incoming spells and spell-like abilities. It can absorb up to 1d4+4 levels of spells before collapsing. Only spells which have spell resistance checks are absorbed, meaning helpful healing and protective spells do not get blocked, and any spells which do not require a spell resistance check do either. Dispel magic checks and Breach are unaffected. The resistance against spells is absolute. Having 1 level left of protection means a level 1 spell would get absorbed, as well as a level 9 spell. There is no % chance for higher level spells getting by a low spell mantle spell. Gameplay Notes Maximizing any given one of these spells is always a worse gamble than empowering the same spell. However, it could still be useful to do so if you need certain spell level slots that empowered versions would take or know what the enemy is probably or certainly going to do, and a maximized version would be enough for your purposes, while an empowered version isn't sure to be enough. Improved empowered and improved maximized spells are one level lower than as in the chart. This makes an improved maximized Spell Mantle possible (although it is only better than 25% of empowered Spell Mantles, equal to 12.5% of them, and worse than 62.5% of them). This is a rather large note; an empowered Spell Mantle is always a better gamble than a normal Greater Spell Mantle. It has a 61.46% chance of being better, a 7.29% chance of being equal, and a 31.25% chance of being worse. If you have the empower feat, especially for Sorcerers, ignore Greater Spell Mantle and instead use an empowered Spell Mantle. In addition, an empowered Lesser Spell Mantle is always a better gamble than a basic Spell Mantle, although this is not as important once level 9 spells are reached. It has a 60.42% chance of being better, a 10.42% chance of being equal, and a 29.17% chance of being worse. This implies, if any mage has the lesser spell and has level 7 slots, they should empower Lesser Spell Mantle. It is also important to note that Least Spell Mantle is not a comparable replacement, empowered or maximised, to Spell Mantle (Or lesser versions - which provide the same level of protection but at one level lower), although for lower levels it provides a nice layer of protection against nasty single target spells. An empowered Least Spell Mantle is an equal gamble to a Lesser Spell Mantle (although it can not result in 8 or 11 levels of protection, which could matter in rare cases), so if you really need level 5 (and possibly also level 4) spell slots for other spells you can use the former in place of the latter, if it's worth it to you to do so. Spell mantle is temporary protection at best. Some spells do not have spell resistance checks, while standing in an Area of Effect will reduce the mantle very quickly, since when you enter the AOE you usually make a SR check, and each round you do too. It is usually only useful against offensive spellcasters (Monster abilities are unaffected), especially ones using specific spells Sorcerors and Wizards do not have normal protections against - including negative level spells (Enervation, Energy Drain) which remove many spells they can cast in one go, ability-lowering spells (Feeblemind), which can stop their spellcasting completely and Non-will save based "save or die" spells (Finger of Death, Bigby's Crushing Hand...). As a special note for Clerics who have access to this spell, it can provide a way to counter a few mage spells although obviously not terribly useful at the higher levels since it provides a maximum of 12 spell levels of protection (if Empowered with a good roll). This is a useful spell to have on a Wand, Rod or Scroll due to only caster level being taken into account for the duration (which hopefully never has to be reached), and the casters ability modifier not being used for anything. Breach is by far the best single-target way to bring down a spell mantle with no fuss (while also possibly removing other protections that are cast by a sorcerer and wizard at the same time). Bugs Note that all spell mantles are not properly empowered. Only the random roll has to be empowered, not the total number of spell levels. When bug fixed, the numbers change quite a bit: Least Spell Mantle: 10 max if empowered Lesser Spell Mantle: 15 max if empowered Spell Mantle: 20 max if empowered Notes from 3.5E There is no literal "Spell Mantle" spell, although several mimic its effects, the closest being Spell Turning. This is a level 7 spell which reflects 1d4 + 6 spells if the spell cast was specifically targeted at them (opposed to Spell Mantle which affects all hostile spells regardless of the target as long as the caster would be affected. Therefore, this spell would reflect Magic Missile, but not Fireball). It in fact reflected it back at the enemy sometimes, making it more advantageous as a deterrent. Being a level 7 spell would make it analogous with Spell Mantle itself, although the amount of spells reflected/resisted are less. The changes of course from from NWN2 being a real-time game and a need for a utility spell such as this where comparable high-level defensive spells are not possible in a real time setting, such as Prismatic Walls, Foresight, Moment of Prescience, Antimagic Field and Antipathy. As with Premonition being changed to a high Stoneskin spell, so were Greater and Least versions of Spell Mantle created to provide similar protections against spells in a range. External resources *